"I used to work at Google so I keep messing around with the
product. I type in Google.com and to my surprise it showed
it as available," Ved told Business Insider. "I thought it was
some error, but I could actually complete check out."

Ved added it to his shopping cart and, surprisingly, the
transaction went through.

Instead of receiving the normal "you bought a domain" emails from
the company, his Google Search Console dashboard, which has
an overview of his other websites, was updated with messages for
the Google.com domain owner. He also received emails with
internal information, which he has since reported to Google's
security team, Ved said.

"The scary part was I had access to the
webmaster controls for a minute," Ved said.

He frantically took screenshots along the way
and detailed the whole ordeal
in a LinkedIn post.

The
messages that appeared in Sanmay Ved's Google Search Console for
Google.com.Sanmay
Ved

His run of Google.com was short-lived though. Google Domains
canceled the sale a minute later, saying someone had registered
the site before he could, and refunded Ved the $12 that had
already been charged.

"So for one minute I had access," Ved said.
"At least I can now say I'm the man who owned Google.com
for a minute."

Ved is not sure what happened to allow him to purchase the site.
It could have been a bug in Google Domains or the company simply
failed to renew its domain name when the time came. A Google
representative said they are looking into the issue, but
aren't currently noticing anything unusual.

Google's not the first to run into weird domain problems. In
2003, Microsoft failed to renew its "Hotmail.co.uk" web address,
and someone else bought it. While in Google's case it was bought from
Google itself and quickly canceled, Microsoft
had to ask the buyer to return itto them.

While Ved's control over Google.com may have been fleeting, he's
still surprised that his late-night searching led to
actually buying the site. He has been a fan of the company since
he worked there for 5 1/2 years before leaving to get his MBA.
His profile picture on Facebook is just a picture of the Google
Plus logo.